


fading away in the dark, wherever you are

by Anonymous



Category: Undertale (Video Game), 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Undertale Fusion, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Developing Friendships, Drama, Families of Choice, Family, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Genocide, I swear this fic isn't as bad as the tags make it sound, It's All The System's Fault (Scum Villain), M/M, Minor Liǔ Qīnggē/Shěn Yuán | Shěn Qīngqiū, Minor Mòběi-jūn/Shàng Qīnghuá, Murder, NOT a reader fic; it's a stylistic choice, No major OCs, POV Second Person, Redemption, Spoilers - Undertale Genocide Route, Spoilers - Undertale Pacifist Route, Temporary Character Death, Time Travel, and the tags are not necessarily in order of appearance or importance, is it major character death if they get better?, it's from luo binghe's POV with the occasional side POV chapter, make of that what you will :), or other major character; each arc has a different pov, safe to assume that everyone who's someone shows up, there's a lot of murder, this fic is readable with only knowledge of one fandom, though I'd recommend SVSSS over UT if you only have one, trying to avoid spoilers yet still tag properly, trying very hard to avoid spoilers in the character tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:34:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27933163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: In which you, Luo Binghe, son of Tianlang-jun himself, heir to the throne of the Surface, find yourself taking a very short trip down a very long hole.And then a living ice sculpture kidnaps you in an attempt to save you from a talking flower.You can't believe that this is your life now.This work includes: no less than one (1) prince, two (2) talking plants, one (1) ice sculpture, one (1) hamster, two (2) dragons, too many to count ( > 10) incidents of murder and/or attempted murder, and multiple ( > 1) incidents of time travel.
Relationships: Luò Bīnghé & Original Luò Bīnghé, Luò Bīnghé & Shěn Yuán | Shěn Qīngqiū, Luò Bīnghé & Tiānláng-jūn, Original Luò Bīnghé & Original Shěn Qīngqiū, Original Shěn Qīngqiū & Shěn Yuán | Shěn Qīngqiū, Original Shěn Qīngqiū/Yuè Qīngyuán, Shàng Qīnghuá & Shěn Yuán | Shěn Qīngqiū
Kudos: 9
Collections: Anonymous





	fading away in the dark, wherever you are

**Author's Note:**

> So SVSSS isn't a small fandom, per se, but it's definitely not major, either, and people don't really seem to be that into non-MXTX crossovers with it.
> 
> Undertale is both dead (one point against) and extremely toxic (another point against).
> 
> And here's me, striding up with a 6k outline in one hand and less writing than outline in the other.
> 
> Now, onto Arc One of Five...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Luo Binghe gets kidnapped, falls down a hole of improbable height and manages to survive, drinks some tea, and meets a flower.
> 
> Not in that order.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _There's a long road in front of ya  
>  There's a hard life behind ya  
> There's a war been waged inside ya  
> You got big footsteps to follow  
> You got a soul that's barely hollow  
> And that's a hard pill to swallow_

**「** **Open Arc One** : _There's a Long Road in Front of You_ **」**

* * *

You are Luo Binghe, prince of the Surface, son of Tianlang-jun, and you have just taken the worst fall of your life. But more importantly, you are fourteen years old, which is much too old to cry. Although you tell yourself this, it doesn't quite work, and you find yourself sniffling and wiping a tear away from your eyes. It falls into the bed of white flowers that you've found yourself laying atop.

 _Sometimes, you can't believe how weak and useless you are_.

With some concentration, you try to remember what had happened. You were running, trying to get away from the palace, and then you tripped, falling into a large hole.

And now you're here.

The bed of flowers is centered in the shaft leading back up to the Surface, sunlight streaming down. Under the light, the petals of each flower faintly gleam, reflecting flecks of light. They look almost ethereal as they shimmer.

It would be beautiful if you weren't terrified out of your mind.

There's a path leading deeper, away from the sunlight, into a dark cavern. You don't, however, feel like risking it. Anything could be lurking inside of there, from venomous spiders to mountain lions to even worse things that your imagination fails to conjure up.

Burying your face in your hands in an effort to keep more tears from falling, you don't know what you're going to do next. The chances of someone finding you are low. You'd run blindly up the mountain, and it was known for being deserted. It's entirely possible that your father hasn't even noticed that you are missing, yet.

 _Even if he did, you don't think that he would bother to come looking for you_.

Either way, no one is coming to rescue you.

It's hardly as if anyone lives inside the hole that you've fallen into.

"Hello, there," someone says.

Apparently, dramatic irony does exist, but it's working in your favor here. Unbidden, one of your hands drops away from your face and down to your side.

Your knees are pulled up to your chest, and your other hand is still covering your face, so you peek out from between your fingers. When you do, it's to see a flower standing in front of you. Quite literally. Two dark eyes blink at you from atop a green center, offering you a cold sneer. Five luminescent white petals surround the face, and a green stem reaches down into the earth, two leaves attached.

Your hand curls around the knife lying by your right side when you see the flower. You spare a moment to wonder where the knife came from.

_But you ignore it. It’s probably not important._

"You must be new to the Underground. What is your name?" The voice is masculine, and you assume that the flower is male. Maybe. Actually, you're not sure that flowers even have genders. While not a conundrum you ever planned to be faced with, you are staring at a talking, possibly walking flower, so it's suddenly relevant to your situation.

 _However, contemplating these sorts of thoughts is a waste of time, so you settle for male and move on_.

When you don't respond immediately, he adds, "You may call me Hua Xian." The flower has a way of speaking that makes this admission sound almost magnanimous, as if you ought to be honored beyond all belief at the mere thought of receiving the right to use his name.

Not that the way he phrased it has you even sure that the flower's name is really Hua Xian, but you think that your point still stands. The flower's attitude almost reminds you of Sha Hualing. It makes you sad to think about your not-quite-friends, though, so you drop that line of thought.

Muffled, you reply, "Luo Binghe," and with one last scrub at your tears, you pull your hands away from your face and look the flower in the eye.

_The flower freezes in recognition._

There's an almost imperceptible pause that you come very close to missing, but you don't. 

"Luo Binghe," Hua Xian says. Something about the way he says your name doesn't sound quite right, but you're not sure, and you don't want to assign the wrong emotion to the flower. Contemplative, perhaps? There's an edge to it, though, something coldly amused. Slowly, Hua Xian begins to laugh. "Ha... hahaha... of course." His eyes rake you over, a cruel glint shining in them.

You're not sure what's going on.

_Hua Xian seems dangerous, though._

Slowly, you move away, pushing yourself backward on your hands, still in a seated position. You may not be able to point to an exact problem, but something is definitely wrong with Hua Xian.

For one, a smile is beginning to creep over his face at your name. For another, the leaves start to unfurl, reaching out towards you. Quite frankly, you're lucky that Hua Xian has such short, stubby leaves. You're not interested to find out what would happen if they touched you.

Unfortunately, Hua Xian notices his incapability to catch you with his leaves. Small flowers that remind you of miniaturized versions of Hua Xian himself spin into existence, whirling. One of them launches himself at you, and you roll to the side, barely managing to dodge.

 _The next ones won't miss. He's toying with you_.

Somehow, you've managed to retain your grip on the knife you picked up a minute earlier. It looks like it's going to be you or Hua Xian, and this is a fight that you plan to walk away from. You're going to get back home, no matter what it takes.

A pure black sword slams down in front of you, separating you from Hua Xian. Something about it looks strange, almost as if it were made of glass.

In the next instant, something cold attaches itself to your hips, and you let out a small yelp. You feel yourself being lifted up, and while you struggle, whoever just grabbed you is much stronger, and you fail to escape.

Your right hand is still curled around the knife.

_You could stab the person carrying you, if you wanted to._

But you don't want to hurt anyone, even someone who just kidnapped you. Instead, you struggle around, trying to get a glimpse of your abductor. It's difficult, but you manage to catch a flash of gray skin and a black cloak. As you get further away from the bed of flowers you fell into, you can see Hua Xian standing there, growing smaller and smaller.

At a distance, you can tell that the remnants of some sort of building surround the flowers. Hua Xian doesn't move to pursue you and your abductor, and you wonder why.

Unless you use the knife, you don't think that you can break free from the tight grip wrapped around you.

 _The knife is always a possibility_.

You're not going to, though, so you don't make any further attempts at escaping. Eventually, the long, loping strides begin to slow, and the person sets you down. You stumble forward, out of their grasp, and catch yourself on a nearby stalk of bamboo. When you turn, you finally get your first good look at the person who grabbed you-

But they're not a person.

 _A monster_.

He's almost certainly a man, but not like any that you've seen before. Thick black hair falls past his shoulders. A black cloak falls behind him, lined with fur, and his robes are open, exposing his bare chest. But while his clothing is unusual, the rest of him is what truly disturbs you.

You finally know why his hands felt so cold. Your abductor does not have gray skin, as you first thought, but, rather, appears to have been sculpted from ice. And furthermore, it seems that a brilliant blue rune has been etched into his forehead.

Probably not, because that would have been painful, but it does remind you of a carving. Or maybe a tattoo.

Worst of all, however, you can see his heart. Or something like it. You know that hearts aren't actually shaped like a stereotypical cartoon heart, but in the center of his exposed chest floats what looks like a gleaming white, upside-down heart.

Floating is the wrong word. Instead, the heart seems encased in the translucent ice that makes up his body, merely giving it the appearance of floating.

"Stay away from me," you hiss, holding out your knife in front of you. You can tell that your hand is shaking slightly, but you push that thought away.

His face is emotionless, and your threat doesn't provoke any response from him. Maybe he can tell how empty the threat really is.

_It's hardly empty. You could stab him._

He shifts, and it seems almost awkward to you. Finally, he opens his mouth and says, "I am Mobei-jun."

You don't release your knife or point it away from him. For a moment, you think about giving him your name in return.

_Hua Xian attacked you after you gave him your name. It's probably safer to avoid telling anyone else your name, at least for now._

It's better not to risk it, at least, so you don't. Instead, you ask, "Why did you kidnap me?"

His brow furrows in confusion. "I did not." It sounds almost petulant, but with the monster's frosty demeanor, no one could ever rightly accuse him of such a thing. More likely, you're simply misinterpreting him.

"Then what would you call it?" you say with a touch of sarcasm.

_Growing up as a peerless son of Tianlang-jun may have taught you some bad habits._

Luckily for you, though, Mobei-jun doesn't seem to catch your sarcasm. "Saving you," he replies in what seems to be full sincerity.

_However, you don't know if you can trust him. So far, this new world seems to operate on the maxim of kill or be killed._

"From what?" you snarl, gripping your knife a little tighter.

 _You can't afford to trust him_.

"The flower," he says, voice low and serious. "It killed all six of the humans in the past before I could aid them." Mobei-jun's steely gaze drops from yours for the first time as he stares at the soil.

You can't help but feel slightly bad for your possible kidnapper. If that's true, you can't imagine what that must have been like. He clearly regrets his failure, though you don't know what drove him to help. "Alright, then," you reply, "now that you've managed to save me, why don't you point me to an exit?"

Mobei-jun shakes his head. "I cannot do that." Before you can question him further on that, he continues, "The king seeks to kill all humans. If you leave the Ruins, he will inevitably claim your Soul and use it to exit the Barrier."

Today is really not your day. Apparently, everyone down... wherever you are, now, besides Mobei-jun plans to kill you for the crime of being a human.

He lifts his gaze and looks around. When he steps closer to you, you realize that at some point, you let your hand with the knife drop to your side. You make to raise the knife again, but he shakes his head.

"It is unsafe here. Come with me, and we may converse further elsewhere," Mobei-jun says. He extends a hand to you.

 _It would be foolish to accept_.

You take his hand.

* * *

Carefully, you blow on your tea and take a small sip of it.

Your mother would worry if she knew that you had willingly gone with someone who kidnapped you, followed them home, and then consumed the tea they offered you.

Though it's not as if she's around to chastise you any longer.

She had always been so worried about you, the prince who could, at any moment, be kidnapped. No one watched you besides her, and she had begun as one of Tianlang-jun's many janitors. Your father didn't pay nearly enough attention to you to notice if you went missing.

That was, after all, why your escape from home had been so successful. With your mother dead, no one supervised your activities, and it had been a simple task to escape.

_But your mother isn't around, so there is absolutely no need to dwell on her death any longer. If you do, you think you might cry again._

The last thing you need is to cry in front of Mobei-jun. He already thinks that you're too weak to leave the Ruins and manage to live as it is; you hardly need to make that worse by crying.

You wonder, though, if it's actually any more dangerous outside of the Ruins than in them, considering the homicidal flower. Mobei-jun had mentioned some king, but you'd rather not take him at face value. Taking another sip of the tea, which isn't actually that good, you ask as much.

Mobei-jun drinks some of his own tea, a contemplative look in his eyes before he answers, "The king is well-known as the strongest monster in all of the Underground. And if you were to leave the Ruins, everyone else that you meet will likely seek to bring you to him."

"Why?" you ask with a slight frown.

He hesitates, taking a moment to drink his tea. Cupping it in his hands, Mobei-jun says, "Many years ago, there was a great tragedy. Our king swore vengeance on the humans, that he would retake the Surface. Everyone knows of it. All he needs is one human Soul, and most of us wish for revenge as well." Shaking his head, he adds, "I stay in the Ruins to prevent that."

There were more than a few interesting tidbits dropped in there, but only one of them stands out to you. "Prevent that? How?"

With a seeming non-sequitur, Mobei-jun looks you straight in the eye and asks, "Do you remember where you first entered the Underground?"

Blinking, you reply, "Was that when I fell? Into the flowers?"

Mobei-jun nods. "That is the sole entrance to the entire Underground, and, therefore, the only place from where humans may arrive. Furthermore, there is only one exit from the Ruins. Locked, the door opens to a unique key, and I have it with me at all times." He shakes his head. "I apologize, but I must ensure the door remains always shut to protect both the humans that fall if they were to survive, from the king, but also to prevent the flower from harming those on the other side."

One key, one exit. And he keeps the key on him constantly.

_You'll have to take it from him through force._

It's a good idea, except for the fact that you don't want to hurt Mobei-jun. Excluding the slightly disastrous first meeting, the monster has been nothing but helpful.

You asked him, actually, about what his species or whatever he was were called, but it turns out that they actually are called monsters. The way he says it doesn't seem to carry the same connotations of an insult, so while you feel slightly uncomfortable using it, still, you use the label.

Frowning, you try again. "I really need to leave." With an attempt to appeal to his better nature, you say, "My father will be wondering where I am."

 _You hate that you're using **him**_ _to try and convince the monster_.

He shakes his head, insistent. "I cannot allow you to do that. The king will kill you, and with your Soul, the suffering he could cause on the Surface..." Mobei-jun trails off. You have to admit, he doesn't exactly paint a pretty picture of what will happen to you.

Despite that, you rise from your seat, tightly gripping your knife. "I have to go."

 _Last chance, monster_.

Mobei-jun doesn't stand, but he holds out his hand. An array of the black swords coalesce into existence around him. "I would prefer not to harm you."

You scoff at that. How can he say that with a straight face, when all you've asked of him is a way to get home?

 _But he can't stop you_.

Slowly, you raise your knife.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title comes from [Counting on Me](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv3MfEZh0wY) by Smash Into Pieces.
> 
> Also, I normally suck at writing longfic, but I have an outline that's over 6k and character profiles, so hopefully, this one gets finished! Currently, the planned fic will span four arcs interspersed with four interludes and ending with an epilogue of indeterminate length. Probably shorter than the arcs, though.
> 
> Hua Xian is written with the characters of 花娴.


End file.
